Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Self Portrait

Self portrait 21cm x 15cm carbon.

Did some drawing today at the studio, no props needed just a mirror.I’ve been reading some of the deeper meanings behind the artist and the self portrait.What it gives me is more practice and an image, if placed on the mantelpiece, that will keep the children away from the dangers of the fire

Rembrandt created vast amounts of self-portraits through intensive self-study and chronicled his circumstances through life. No artist has left a loftier or more penetrating personal testament than Rembrandt van Rijn with more than 90 portraits of himself that date from the outset of his career in the 1620s to the year of his death in 1669

One of the greatest examples of self-portrait as self study can be seen in the work of Frida Kahlo. In approximately one-third of her work Kahlo used herself as the main subject, creating a kind of therapy, struggling to make amends with personal afflictions.

Vincent Van Gogh charted his development as an artist in an amazing series of candid self portraits. These not only record the changes in his painting technique, but also reveal his psychological decline with a humility and honesty not seen since the self portraits of Rembrandt. In the last five years of his life he painted over thirty self portraits.